Social networking websites sway college admissions

The social networking presence of college applicants on websites like Facebook and Twitter is playing an increasingly important role in determining whether the candidate will be accepted to the school of their choice. The Student Advisor website described the case of one student whose application was rejected because of something they had posted on their Facebook page, and an admissions officer said her opinion of the candidate is definitely affected by what she sees online about them.

Allison Otis, who interviews candidates for Harvard College, responding to this user question on Quora – “Do High School student’s Facebook profiles affect their college application?”, said it is always better to be safe than sorry, because “when you apply to college you spend such a long time crafting an image through your applications and essays, that to be careless about your online data is just silly.”

Otis said she sometimes Googles a candidate and this will bring up anything the have on Facebook or Twitter, and Harvard does not instruct admissions to exclude this information from their review process.

Answering her own question, “Does a Facebook profile or a website prejudice me before I meet a candidate?” Otis said “Yes, absolutely”.